Horse-head Wall Reflects the Qing Dynasty

Chapter 49: The Unfairness of the World

The gray sky seemed to have no light at all, and the originally black and white walls became chaotic because of the gray light that seeped in. I could vaguely see that the other side of the bridge was more like the small square bricks of the Beijing courtyard, which were regular but chaotic, like the "slums" that my colleagues had seen when they took me to walk around the streets.

Guan Yin clearly looked at the people selling things on the street. He felt that everyone's movements were as if they were put into slow motion. If one didn't know, one would think he was watching an old black-and-white movie. The rustling sounds were not very clear.

The pale yellow light seemed to be shining from the river onto the shops with signs on both sides of the street, so that the dim light made the people coming and going look a little scary.

Guan Yin stared blankly at the orange-red mountains in the distance. Only then did he suddenly feel that these distant mountains were the only place with color.

“Da la la…”

"Crash!" The sound of metal and stone bricks colliding came from all directions, and Guan Yin realized the weirdness here.

"Guan Yin!"

"Guan Yin..."

"Guan...Yin!"

A voice like calling one's soul rang in Guan Yin's ears. His shoulders and arms suddenly seemed to be grabbed by someone. He felt dizzy and when he came to his senses, he was already on the ground. He raised his head and looked up at the person in the red robe above him.

"Guan Yin, do you admit your guilt?"

"Who are you?" The man in front of him was indeed majestic. Because of the distance, Guan Yin could only vaguely see that the man seemed to have a beard on his face, and his aura was intimidating without him even getting angry.

To the point that this man's eyes are now wide open and his gaze is as sharp as a torch, as if he can see through everything with just his gaze.

"Our master is not a human being!"

"You're too talkative!" Guan Yin knew that this place was not like the human world, but the leader couldn't help but say, "I'm a ghost, your master. I'm a judge registered in the Heavenly Court. How can I not be a human?"

"But what's so good about being a human being? So many injustices and grievances have to be reported to my underworld government!"

Guan Yin did not speak. Whether he was a ghost or a human, he might not be a good person, but he was definitely not a bad person. How could a person dare to say that he had never been jealous of others or cursed others in his life? But it was rare to have no faults.

"Has anyone reported me to the judge?" Guan Yin had no concept of life and death, dream and reality at this moment. He just had nothing to be afraid of since the judge said "fairness".

I recalled what I had said to Sanheng not long ago: If you have done nothing wrong, you don't have to worry about ghosts knocking on your door. If you have a clear conscience, what is there to be afraid of?

"This... Master, this is not the case." It was the long-tongued devil who spoke again, "Master, how about we let her go?"

"put?"

"She is guilty."

"Then dare to ask what crime I have committed?" While the gossipy little ghost was passing on the message, Guan Yin stood up, "Since it is said that the underworld is more fair than the human world, why do you have to use this trick of 'you can always find a pretext to accuse someone of a crime'? What's the point of that?"

"This, this, this... Master, what she said makes sense!"

The long-tongued little devil didn't seem to be really afraid of the judge sitting at the head. Guan Yin could see clearly that the little devil was respectful, not afraid - that was good, it showed that the judge was reasonable.

After the little ghost said that, the leader didn't say anything for a long time, just stared at Guan Yin.

"You impersonated someone else and forcibly occupied his wife, servants, isn't that wrong?" The judge looked down at Guan Yin, scrutinizing his every move, as if if Guan Yin showed the slightest guilty feeling, he would fry him in a frying pan.

Hearing this, Guan Yin was stunned for a moment, and then smiled with dissatisfaction.

"Why? Are you still dissatisfied with what I said?"

"Someone, tie her up for me!"

A group of strange-looking ghosts came out secretly, holding long ropes or iron chains in their hands. They really tied Guan Yin up and hung him in the air with his toes off the ground, which really made people feel insecure.

At this moment, pain also began to spread to Guan Yin's arms, causing him to frown.

"Husband, please take a rest. Don't overwork yourself." Seeing that Guan Yin had been lying in front of the table for two or three days, almost to the point of forgetting to eat and sleep, how could Liu Jiaoan not be worried?
The wind outside the window blew through people's clothes for no reason. Sanheng heated up the porridge in the morning and added some wild vegetables from the field. The purple and green vegetables floated in the porridge. Although it was a little light, it could make people more hungry.

Seeing Sanheng carrying the porridge in front of her, Liu Jiaoan nodded to signal him not to worry for now, and she wanted her husband to stop working for the time being: "Husband?"

After two sentences without any response, Liu Jiaoan approached with worry. There was a mess of ink under the pen tube. Guan Yin had fallen asleep with the pen in his hand. The sunlight fell on his trembling eyelashes, which made him look cute for no reason.

"Leave it there. It's rare that I get to sleep."

Liu Jiaoan simply took the pen from Guan Yin's hand and put it aside, and said something to Sanheng.

"Madam, my husband is frowning. Could he be having a nightmare?"

Following Sanheng's words, Liu Jiaoan saw Guan Yin's frown, and with a soft sigh, she told Sanheng to help Guan Yin to the side to rest: "It's really uncomfortable to sleep like this, Sanheng, give me a hand."

Guan Yin saw the long-tongued little devil approach the judge's ear and whisper a few words. The judge's originally firm and confident look turned a little fearful, and he waved his hand to let Guan Yin go.

However, the person under his hand was not careful enough, and Guan Yin's right leg was pressed on his left leg. He lost his balance and fell, and a sudden pain came from his left leg.

"Sanheng, be careful, your husband's legs are touching the table."

Finally, Guan Yin was placed on the bed. Liu Jiaoan's eyes fell on Guan Yin's clothes. Sanheng originally wanted to help her husband change clothes, but the former found an excuse to send Sanheng away: "Go get me some hot water and sweat a little. I need to wash myself again."

"Although no one has come to sue you, you have occupied someone else's wife and room, and taken someone else's servants. According to the law, you should be punished with fifty strokes of the cane. Do you know your crime?"

The gossipy little devil leaned over and whispered something to the judge, who waved his hand and looked at Guan Yin who was standing below with a little disbelief.

"Forget it, forget it. Someone is begging you for mercy. Since you have benefited from them, you should restore their innocence and redress their wrongs."

"Help her change her clothes and take her away!" Guan Yin then realized that his body was covered in blood from the hanging and falling. It would be difficult to explain if someone found out.

So Guan Yin acquiesced to the judge's attempt to cover up his crime. But when he was changing clothes, he was knocked unconscious by the gossip boy. When he opened his eyes again, he saw a dazzling light and Liu Jiaoan's enlarged face was right in front of him.

Thinking of the dream just now, Guan Yin lowered his eyes slightly and glanced at his clothes, and sure enough, they had been changed.

"you……"

"My husband was feeling uncomfortable sleeping at the desk just now, so Sanheng and I helped him over." I don't know why Liu Jiaoan was explaining this. After all, she and her original body had been nominally married for such a long time, but she still felt reserved even when changing clothes.

"I changed this dress for my husband. I saw it was not very clean... I only changed the outer one."

Guan Yin breathed a sigh of relief, but did not realize that Liu Jiaoan's slightly deliberate explanation was actually an attempt to cover up one's mistake.

After waking up from the dream, Guan Yin didn't take the things in the dream seriously at all - you dream about what you think about during the day. These days, because of Sanheng and this script, I have been thinking about the things in the underworld all the time. It would be strange if I didn't have such a dream.'

It was just that the handkerchief in Liu Jiaoan's hand was slightly pink. Guan Yin lowered his eyes and pondered for a moment, but still couldn't suppress his doubts: "Jiaoan, your handkerchief..."

"Ah, my husband said this?"

Oh, it's an embroidery. Guan Yin breathed a sigh of relief... Fortunately, his identity could still be kept secret.

Behind the false alarm was Guan Yin's inner thoughts that he had been suppressing and hiding - since he had taken over the original person's identity, he should also take responsibility for the original person's past.

It's just that Guan Yin obviously can't get over his own hurdle. He always wants to use his modern thinking to influence a period of history.

While Guan Yin was in a trance, Liu Jiaoan put her handkerchief aside. The vague worry between her eyebrows gradually faded away as Liu Jiaoan spoke: "What did you think of, husband? But what about the nightmare just now?"

Guan Yin suspected that Liu Jiaoan was also testing him.

Those online novels didn't take into account, or deliberately omitted the fact that in this era when time travel was not so convenient, how women disguised themselves as men and hid it from the people around them, which caused Guan Yin a lot of trouble.

Fortunately, the ancients also took such items into tombs, and Guan Yin also heard from his elders when he was a child that "your generation has much better conditions", so he managed to get by.

In the middle of the night, Guan Yin had to hide from Sanheng and Liu Jiaoan, which led to his "feat" of falling asleep while holding a pen in broad daylight.

"It's nothing, ma'am, don't worry." After coming back to his senses, Guan Yin lamented that girls' lives were full of hardships. Suddenly, for a moment, he wondered why he was not one of those time travelers who could travel through space and bring convenient things to the girls around him through his own efforts.

But this is only a temporary solution after all. Guan Yin understands that such a change is incomplete in any case. The productivity of this era is not up to standard. It is unfair to the labor put in by the people of this era to obtain extra wealth through existence that is not in line with productivity.

"If you have something you want to talk to Jiaoan about, just tell me. No matter what it is, as long as Jiaoan can help."

What Liu Jiaoan said was more like a curse than a normal sentence. Just like the "I'll tell you" she said not long ago. But Guan Yin himself never had the courage to ask...

"Okay, thank you, Madam." Liu Jiaoan's words fell into Guan Yin's ears, and the latter's heart was touched for a moment, but he finally suppressed his emotions and politely pushed the person in front of him away, "Madam, you have worked hard for the family, and I, as your husband, am sorry for you."

The inexplicable politeness between the two made the atmosphere around them awkward. Before Liu Jiaoan could speak again, Guan Yin hurriedly moved from the bed to the desk, picked up a pen, and used writing to escape this strange and polite embarrassment.

Guan Yin escaped, and Liu Jiaoan seemed to want to escape as well. She left the house with the handkerchief that had frightened the former, and walked away to an unknown place.

Clear water trickles, green mountains are far away, Liu Jiaoan is sitting slowly by the water carrying a basket of clothes. If you look carefully, you will find that the handkerchief is not on the top, but the clothes that Guan Yin just changed are neatly folded and placed on the top.

The scorching sun shining on the mountains could not change the coldness of the flowing water. A corner of her clothes was in the water and was soaked deeply. Liu Jiaoan took the clothes in the basket and gently dipped them into the water, which together with the bluestone not far away, stirred up white waves like broken silver.

As the water flowed over her hands, the inevitable coldness pierced her skin, and Liu Jiaoan felt that every joint in her hands was slightly sore. She clenched her hands together, her eyes fell on the basket beside her, and finally put her hands into the water again.

After a while, Liu Jiaoan's hands were turned powdery by the cold water, and she finally seemed to have adapted to the temperature and quickly scrubbed the clothes in the basket - Liu Jiaoan seemed to have exhausted all her strength, but large areas of the clothes were still dry.

"Madame, madam..."

A familiar call came from not far downstream, and Liu Jiaoan once again quickened his movements.

"lady?"

"Ma'am, I'm Sanheng!"

Just now, the lady asked for a basket and left the yard. When Sanheng reacted, he found that the old clothes in the house were gone - now the lady is having her period, and the master specifically instructed not to let the lady work too hard on her special day.

"Swish, swish..." The sound of running water gradually could not drown out Sanheng's calls, but Liu Jiaoan washed clothes as fast as if she was risking her life and did not dare to slow down at all.

"Madam, hey, madam!"

Fortunately, Sanheng met an old lady from the neighborhood on the road. The old lady ran into Liu Jiaoan who was walking towards the creek. Seeing Sanheng coming in a hurry to look for her, she told Sanheng where Liu Jiaoan was.

"Madam, today... leave these matters to Sanheng."

Sanheng came, but Liu Jiaoan did not rush to stand up. She let the hem of her clothes be washed by the water and squatted by the river to wash the clothes in her hands.

"Madam, please get up quickly. This will hurt your body. How can Sanheng ..."

How to explain? To whom? Liu Jiaoan said nothing, but just rubbed her clothes, as if this could give some warmth to her hands that were almost frozen by the river water.

Seeing that Liu Jiaoan didn't respond, Sanheng leaned over and stretched out his hand to take the clothes from Liu Jiaoan's hand. However, Liu Jiaoan slightly shifted her body and avoided Sanheng's hand.

"Sanheng, the food at home isn't good, and we can't give you much money. You might as well go back to the Liu family." Before Sanheng could say anything else, Liu Jiaoan suddenly stood up and threw the clothes she had just washed into the basket beside her. "Your parents are also in the Liu family. They are old, and you should be filial to them."

"Madam, are you chasing Sanheng away?" Sanheng spoke like a child who was about to be abandoned, his voice a little hoarse.

(End of this chapter)